How My Daughter’s New Toy Turned Into “I Love You”

My daughter has wanted an iPod since Christmas. She's been begging us like crazy! Did I mention she's 7? Well, I wasn't about to go out and spend $200 on a very small toy that I thought she might lose so I told her if she wanted one that she'd have to save her money. Boy, did she ever...

Before I knew it, she had saved up nearly the entire amount that she needed to get the model that she wanted and everything. She had rolled all of her pennies and dimes and counted it all up. They were all saved in a shoebox that weighed about twenty pounds and she asked me if I could take it to the bank for her. She was sure she had enough.

After the poor bank teller added all of the coins up, she was about $20 short. Well, I have never seen a girl who was 7 years old be so determined about saving her money. She would search for pennies on the sidewalk and ask for the change that we got at the store. I was raising a panhandler!

I was so proud of her for her thriftiness! I decided that we would just cover the extra $20 ourselves to prove to her that it pays off to save her money. She didn't need to know that she didn't save the entire amount. She had done a good job and it was time to reward her for that.

We ordered the iPod. It came today. As I opened the package I couldn't help but think she was going to become that teenage kid with headphones plugged in her ears that wanted nothing more to do with her parents anymore. It scared the crap out of me. My little girl was becoming a big girl who was saving her own money and buying big people things. I was starting to get a little depressed.

Then it happened.

As I was showing her some of the stuff that her new toy could do, she said it. "I love you daddy." Where did that come from? I didn't say it first. She said it first! And she didn't even want anything more from me, so she wasn't just buttering me up. She actually thought that I was a cool dad! She wanted to text me. She wanted to do facetime with me. I didn't even buy it for her. She bought it with her own money that she had saved herself!

I'll take it! I know that there are going to be a couple years coming up where she won't think that I'm that cool. And she's going to have other friends that she'll want to text and have facetime with. But for now, I'll take it.